


Never Dreamt It'd Be Like This

by pancake2



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, First Meeting, Fluff, Human AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pancake2/pseuds/pancake2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When she met a(n incredibly cute) stranger at a concert, the last thing Ruby imagined would be that she'd ever get the chance to talk to her again, but life has its way of surprising her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Dreamt It'd Be Like This

**Author's Note:**

> this is based off [this post i made forever ago](http://thepansexualpancake.tumblr.com/post/125185749865/)
> 
> i literally started this in august help me
> 
> title is from The Best Thing by Relient K
> 
> also for the sake of this au greg is at least low-key famous

“C’mon, we’ve gotta get there quick if we wanna get close enough!” Ruby yelled as she dragged Amethyst behind her, racing towards the tour bus.

Amethyst rolled her eyes as she followed behind, trying her best to weave through the crowd that was already starting to form. Sometimes she couldn’t believe the things that she would put up with for her friend. Tonight, this meant going along to a concert for some artist she hardly knew of, and, apparently, waiting outside his tour bus in the hopes that Ruby could meet him for two seconds.

Once they were in a place that Ruby had deemed to be as close as they could reasonably get to the front of the crowd, she pulled out her phone, only to turn around and look up at Amethyst in horror and shout, “My phone just died! What do I do now?”

Amethyst shrugged, “Sorry, Ru, mine’s been dead for hours. You know these things can't hold a charge for shit.”

“This is just _perfect!_ ” Ruby groaned as she knit her hands in her hair, trying to pace in the small space around her out of frustration.

Amethyst didn’t really have a solution, but she hated seeing her friend like this, so she grabbed her shoulder to stop her pacing, then offered, “Well, maybe we can figure something out, like-”

She was cut off as the crowd around them stirred suddenly, shouts of “Mr. Universe!” erupting from those around them. Within seconds, Amethyst found herself being pushed back from Ruby. She could still see the shorter girl, but reaching her at this point would be hopeless.

The next few moments were a blur, as the singer approached his fans, stopping to take pictures with anyone who held their phone out to him. In no time, he was past Ruby, who had scarcely gotten a “hi” out before the man was pushed along by his security guards. Amethyst saw the devastated look on her friend’s face, but then quickly noticed something else; a girl next to Ruby was looking at the picture that she had gotten, and somehow, Ruby had managed to make her way into it. The bright red tips of her hair were pretty unmistakable, so it couldn’t be anyone else.

Amethyst pushed past people, making her way to Ruby, and grabbed her shoulder, shouting excitedly, “Ruby! You’re never gonna believe this!”

Ruby spun around, still slightly starstruck, sounding out of it as she asked, “What?”

Amethyst grinned, “See that girl over there?” she pointed towards someone with her back turned, leaving only powder blue locks in sight. Ruby nodded shortly before Amethyst continued, “Well, she got a picture with him, and _you’re_ in it!”

Ruby’s jaw dropped, letting out a breathless, “No way…” as she hopelessly stared at the stranger, interrupted from her trance only when Amethyst started pushing her forward.

“C’mon, Rubes, you’ve gotta go talk to her!”

Her eyes widened and she rapidly shook her head, “No, no, no, what if it’s weird-” but before she had time to protest further, she felt herself bump into this stranger, and her face grew as bright as her hair when she turned to face her.

“Sorry!” she blurted quickly, a hand shooting up to cover her mouth as she averted the stranger’s gaze, her social anxiety taking the better of her.

The girl started to turn away, letting out a soft, “S’okay,” before Amethyst butted in.

“Hey wait!”

She turned again, looking at the two expectantly and waiting for either to say something.

Amethyst softly elbowed Ruby, grinning, “You’ve got somethin’ to ask, don’tcha, Ru?”

Ruby swore she felt herself blush even harder, barely looking up from the ground as she rambled out, “So… I dunno if this is weird, it’s kinda weird… Am- My friend… She uh… Said she saw your phone- _THE PICTURE!_ The picture that you got. On your phone. Shit! Sorry that’s… That’s creepy isn’t it?” She paused and looked up, just long enough to see the corner’s of this stranger’s mouth curve up a little, before quickly glancing to the side and continuing, “And so. She said she saw me in it- She wasn’t staring! It’s just…” Ruby stopped and motioned frantically to her bright curls.

She was quiet a moment before realizing she hadn’t finished, blurting again, “Shit! Sorry… Anyway. The picture. I- My phone was dead, so I didn’t get a picture and I was wondering… Would you... Mind sending that one to me? Please! Only if it’s okay! You don’t have t-”

“It’s fine,” the girl cut in with a soft laugh, holding her phone out to Ruby, the picture already on the screen. “Type in your number and send it.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you,” Ruby sighed in a single breath, sounding like she’d just finished a marathon. She carefully took the device, glancing at the photo only long enough to notice that she was actually smiling, despite not having posed on purpose, before typing her number in and hitting send. She handed the phone back to its owner, spouting, “Thank you,” at least four times in half as many seconds.

The stranger pocketed the phone, nodding, “No problem,” before giving a short wave and turning, pushing into the crowd in search of whomever she’d come with.

Ruby was still recovering from the awkward encounter when she turned just in time to watch Amethyst break into the laughter she’d clearly been holding in for the entire conversation. She frowned as her friend spit out, “ _Man_ , Ru, you sure are _smooth_ with the ladies!” before nearly doubling over in laughter.

Ruby dragged a hand down her face, groaning, “You’re never gonna let this go, are you?”

Amethyst smiled, “Nope!” popping the p, and pushing Ruby’s shoulder playfully, grinning wider, “C’mon, you know I just love messin’ with you. And hey, you got your picture with your nerdy space guy, that’s good, right?”

Ruby rolled her eyes, “I told you, I’ve been listening to Mr. Universe since I was like, eight. This is basically a childhood dream come true! I actually _saw_  him, in _person_! And got a _picture_!” She was growing excited again, slowly relaxing from her earlier embarrassment.

The two began walking away from the crowd, and Amethyst mocked, “Aww, do you have a crush?”

Ruby scrunched up her nose, “Ew, no!” before pausing and nearly stopping in her tracks as she recounted, “Okay, maybe I _thought_  I did, when I somehow thought I was straight. Not to mention, that was also when I was in _elementary school_. A lot has changed. This was more like… Finally meeting someone I’ve looked up to for forever.”

“Aw, nerd.”

“Whatever!”

They walked in silence for a while, and Ruby began recounting the evening’s events. It still wasn’t totally registering in her mind that she had _actually_ met Mr. Universe. Even if it was for only a brief moment, it had left her completely starstruck. She couldn’t wait until she was able to charge her phone so she could get a better look at that picture…

She snapped to attention when she felt herself pulled to a stop, and noticed Amethyst gripping her wrist, which she realized was to make her stop walking. She was about to go right past the entrance to their apartment building.

“Dude. You were totally spaced out, we’re home. Unless you’ve got somewhere else to be at one in the morning.” The last part was said with a bit of a laugh.

Ruby shook her head, “Shit, sorry I was just… Thinking.”

Amethyst laughed and shook her head, “C’mon,” before tugging Ruby into the building and towards the elevator.

Once they had made it up to their apartment, Ruby ran into her room and fumbled with the charger on her nightstand. She tapped her foot nervously as she waited for her phone to come back on. When she decided it was taking too long, she walked back into the living room and flopped beside Amethyst on the couch, groaning, “Ugh, this is gonna take _forever_.”

She only rolled her eyes at her friend’s complaints, ignoring them in favor of asking, “You want pizza or something? I’m starving.” Ruby only shrugged, and Amethyst decided to order some anyway, pulling out her laptop and placing an order at the pizza place two doors down from their building. She pushed her melodramatic friend off her shoulder and stood up, throwing over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in like 15 minutes,” as she headed out the door.

Ruby stayed on the couch a moment, turning the TV on to whatever channel had been on last, not even paying attention to what was on. After a few minutes, she decided she couldn’t take the waiting anymore, and returned to her phone, giving a relieved sigh when the screen began to light up. She hopped onto her bed as she waited for it to turn on, and smiled when she saw the notification for a new text. She opened it and clicked on the picture, looking at it for only a brief moment until she dropped the phone in her lap as realization hit her.

In her earlier panic, she had hardly even looked at the stranger for more than a second, and it wasn’t until now that she really even noticed what she looked like at all. 

She had long waves of pale blue hair, tumbling around her shoulders the way you’d see a model in a magazine. Her bangs almost entirely covered her eyes, leaving only the tiniest peek at the corner of her left eye, a faint shimmer of blue glimmering in the city lights. Full lips curved up into a warm smile that almost looked candid; her mouth wasn’t yet open, but it looked like she was about to burst into laughter.

Ruby felt her face go red. After she had managed to embarrass herself beyond all reason, the girl just had to go and be _cute._

_ Shit. _

Her hands fumbled with her phone as she picked it up again, trying to look at the rest of the picture without staring at the girl for too long. They weren’t the only two in the picture, so Ruby didn’t feel _too_ bad for accidentally photobombing it. Mr. Universe had been pushed through the crowd by his security so fast that there was no time for him to figure out who was trying to get in the picture, so he seemed to just go for getting as many people as possible in the frame. 

Ruby was the furthest to the right, somehow by chance looking almost to the camera, and with at least a hint of a smile from the excitement she had been feeling. Next to her was the _adorable_ stranger, with one arm around the shoulders of a much taller girl, who was smiling widely and making a cheesy peace sign. Next to her was Mr. Universe himself, grinning and looking for all the world like he honestly enjoyed these moments with his fans. Next to him were two others, very clearly in the frame but looked to be mid-conversation and not at all posing, with a phone between them, probably investigating the photo they’d gotten. That took a little of the concern off Ruby’s shoulders, but not much.

Her mind was swimming with all the information she was trying to take in, but she simply couldn’t get over the fact that she’d made such a complete fool of herself in front of this girl she was finding it increasingly hard not to stare at. Everything seemed to be swirling, and she was quickly ruling out nausea as the cause.

Lost in the picture, she hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed, but somewhere in the back of her mind she heard the door to the apartment open and shut, yet she still jumped when Amethyst appeared in her doorway and loudly announced, “Pizza’s here!”

This reaction only made her lilac-haired friend burst into a fit of snickering, but she couldn’t think of a comeback, and instead somehow heard herself yell, “You didn’t tell me she was _cute!_ ”

“Oh my god.” Amethyst only laughed harder, choking out, “Holy shit, how out of it _were_ you?”

“Amethyst! This isn’t funny!”

“Uh, pretty sure it is. Did you take your eyes off the ground for even a second when you were talking to her?”

Ruby felt her face heat up, stammering, “N- no! I already felt so awkward, do you know how infinitely worse that would have been if I’d looked at her?”

“You’ve gotta text her.” There was a playfully sinister glint in her eyes, and it scared Ruby a little.

“ _What!?_ Are you crazy? I can’t do that!”

“Then I’ll do it for you!”

With that, Amethyst bounded onto Ruby’s bed, tackling her and grabbing at her phone, which the shorter girl made quick work of locking and trying to defend with her life. Ruby managed to get enough control to jump up and dart out of the room, clutching her phone tightly. Amethyst followed close behind, catching up and knocking Ruby onto the couch in seconds, ignoring protests as she finally seized the device and jumped up, laughing and running across the room.

“ _Amethyst_ , I swear to fucking god, if you don’t give me that back…” Ruby tore across the room, knocking Amethyst to the ground and putting her in a headlock.

“C’mon, this could be great!” The words were choked out with a smile, despite her compromising position.

Ruby thought about it for a minute, groaning when she decided she agreed.

“Fine! But let _me_ do it!” She let go of Amethyst, extending her hand and hoping her friend would respect her truce.

“Finally!” Amethyst grinned, dropping the device into the outstretched palm, then hopped up and grabbed a slice of pizza from the box she’d left on the coffee table and dropped unceremoniously onto the couch. She looked up at Ruby, asking around a mouthful of pizza, “So, whatcha gonna say?”

Ruby flopped onto the couch next to Amethyst, looking at the picture again and groaning, “Ugh, I have no idea. It's like 1:30 in the morning, is that too late to text someone you don't know?”

Amethyst shook her head, “Nah, that concert ended less than an hour ago, just send her _something_ already!”

After some thought, Ruby typed something and hit send, immediately locking the phone and refusing to look at it. She slid it to the far end of the coffee table, grabbing a slice of pizza and failing horribly at looking casual.

Amethyst nearly snorted, laughing at this ridiculous act, “What the hell did you even say?”

Ruby slowly chewed her bite of food, seeming to take longer to avoid answering. She finally swallowed it, then picked anxiously at the pizza in her hands as she confessed, “I just... I'm testing the waters first. Seeing if she even wants to talk. I just thanked her for sending that to me again, which is probably stupid given the number of times I already told her that. She probably thinks I'm an idiot... Hey!” Her shout was in response to a soft punch in her shoulder, and she looked up to see a look of genuine concern on her friend's face.

“Hey, quit being so hard on yourself, Ru. You didn't look up to see that she was totally smiling the entire time you were talking to her. She probably thought it was adorable.”

Ruby's face broke into a crooked smile, laughing, “Yeah, sure. My luck, she's probably straight.”

“Nahhh, I don't believe it, she's probably as gay as you are. Couldn't even see her eyes past those bangs but I could _tell_ how she was looking at you.”

Before she could retort, Ruby's phone made a soft _ding!_ and Amethyst scrambled to grab it, looking at the screen despite Ruby's protesting.

“Looks like your little _test_ worked, you've gotta keep texting her!”

“Then gimme my fucking phone and let me see what she even said!”

Amethyst laughed and granted the request, grinning, “If you get a date with this chick, you can thank me. You wouldn't have even noticed her, you were so starstruck cuz of some _guy._ ”

Ruby sneered, “Yeah, yeah, shut up,” as she read the message on her screen, an excited smile slowly growing on her face.

_ “No problem! Happy to help someone else get their picture with such a cool musician!” _

“Holy shit, she's actually saying more than just a polite little response!”

Amethyst was grinning like the Cheshire Cat as she drummed her palms on Ruby's knee and boasted, “I know! I fucking _told_ you! Text her back!”

“Shush! I gotta focus on this so I don't make some embarrassing typo!”

Amethyst just laughed, watching as her friend put so much concentration into sending a text; face nearly pressed to the screen, the tip of her tongue just slightly sticking out of the corner of her mouth like it always did when she was really focused.

Ruby finally hit send, reading over her own message for the fiftieth time,  _“He's really great, isn't he? Btw, I don't think I got your name earlier. Mine's Ruby.”_

It only took a few moments before the phone sounded with a response again.

_ “I'm Sapphire.” _

Oh no, even her _name_ was beautiful. Ruby was in deep.

She stared at the screen for a moment before looking up at Amethyst, frowning, “I don't know what to say now, what do I do?”

“Where're you at right now?”

“She just told me her name...”

“Well? Don't keep me waiting! What is it?”

Amethyst swore she saw stars in Ruby's eyes as she gave a crooked grin and breathed, “Sapphire.”

“Oh wow, you've got it _bad_ for this girl, don't you?”

Ruby tried to laugh it off, pushing a loose piece of hair behind her ear, dodging eye contact as she mumbled, “I mean she's cute as hell, but it's not like I even _know_ her…”

“Which is why you gotta keep texting her! _Get_ to know her!”

Ruby sighed, looking at her phone again and trying to think of what she could say, settling on a topic she already knew they’d have in common,  _“So, was that concert awesome or what?”_ She cringed a little after sending it, wondering if that had been too casual. Texting new people was far from her forte; it was so hard to know what sort of tone to go for.

It only took a moment for a new message to slice through her worry,  _“It was incredible, wasn’t it? I’ve listened to his music for so long, he’s even better live!”_ The text was followed by a grinning emoji, which made Ruby smile, as it relieved a little of the seriousness she’d been worried about.

She quickly typed back, _“Same! I've been listening since I was like 8! My younger self would be so jealous if she knew.”_

_ “Maybe she’d just desperately try to find the answer to time travel.” _

Ruby let out an undignified snort at this response, which was when she remembered she wasn’t alone, and looked up to see the biggest shit eating grin spread across Amethyst’s face. She didn’t have to verbalize that she wanted to know exactly what had been said to merit such a response.

“You’re unbelievable. Go mind your own damn business!” There isn’t a hint of animosity as the words come off her lips, almost laughing at her friend’s unspoken nosiness.

Amethyst just shrugged and picked up a game controller from the coffee table, turning the system on and granting Ruby her desired (albeit small amount of) privacy. It was the sort of thing you got used to when you'd shared an apartment with your best friend since you'd both graduated college.

Ruby looked back to her phone, typing out, “Hah, wouldn’t have put it past me.” She followed this with a laughing emoji, keeping up with the tone Sapphire had used before.

_“You’re funny, Ruby,”_ was followed by another smiling emoji, and then the indication that she was typing something else. Ruby debated sending something else before the phone let out another _ding!_ and displayed a message that Ruby had to read over a few times to make sure she wasn’t just imagining it.

_ “So I know we just met and everything, maybe this is a little forward… But I dunno, you seem really nice, and you’re really cute, and I’d kinda like to get to know you better, which would be so much easier in person… Would you wanna grab coffee with me sometime?” _

Ruby shook Amethyst’s shoulder with such a force that she dropped her controller, her character on screen dying moments later.

“Ruby! I was about to beat that- holy shit,” her mock-anger trailed off as soon as she saw the look on her friend’s face, along with a phone screen turned towards her displaying the conversation she’d been so curious about minutes before.

"I'm not just reading too far into this, right? This is real?” The grin on Ruby’s face betrayed the hint of worry in her tone.

Amethyst gave a genuine smile, “Looks pretty real to me.”

Ruby was completely shaking with excitement, just barely able to send a response,  _“I’d really like that.”_

A few messages later, and they’d arranged to meet at a nearby coffeeshop in a couple days. The conversation went on for a while, dwindling as it got later into the night.

It was nearly three in the morning when Sapphire sent,  _“As much as I’d love to keep talking, I should really sleep. I’m looking forward to seeing you Saturday!”_

Ruby smiled as she sent a final text,  _“Me too! It’s a date?”_

She practically felt her heart skip a beat as Sapphire’s last message came in.

_ “It’s a date!” _

**Author's Note:**

> this story is probably gonna have 2-3 chapters, and then i think i'm gonna make it part of a series with little less linear oneshots set in this universe, so stay tuned! no exact promise of when i'll update but hopefully the second chapter won't take quite as long as this did...


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